Locker system.



G. H. PIGGOT.

LOCKER SYSTEM.

APPLicATloN FILED AUG. 3o. |916.

Ex Patented 001;. 30,1917.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

GRAHAM H. PIGGOT, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO FEDERAL STEELFIXTURE COMIPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION 0F ILLINOIS.

LOCKER SYSTEM.

Specication of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 30, 1917.

Application filed August 30, 1916. Serial No. 117,613.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, GRAHAM H. Prooor, a citizen of the United States ofAmerica, and resident of Chicago, Cook county, Illinois, have invented acertain new and useful Improvement in Locker Systems, of which thefollowing is a specification.

My invention relates to locker systems for gymnasiums, golf clubs, -andother places where private lockers are necessary and desirable.

The object of my invention is to provide an improved construction andarrangement of such character that the lockers or drawers in which theclothing is kept will be of less size than heretofore, whereby thesystem will be less expensive and occupy-less space, and in which theprivate drawers or lockers are supplemented by a certain number ofcompartments which are common to the members of the club or users of thesys-v tem, thereby to enable each member or user to have what ispractically a full locker service, including the locking up of both thestreet clothing and the gymnasium or other suits at the proper times,but in a system in which each private locker or drawer is too small tohold the street clothing, as will hereinafter more fully appear.

It is also an object to provide certain details andl features ofconstruction and combinations tending to increase the general eiiciencyand desirability of a condensed locker system of this particularcharacter.

To these and other useful ends, my invention consistsf in mattershereinafter set forth and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is a front elevation of a sectionof steel shelving containing the lockers or drawers of a locker systemembodying the principles of my invention.

Fig. 2 is a horizontal section on line 2-2 in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a vertical section on line'JS-S in Fig. 1. l

Fig. 4 is a front elevation of the steel dressing cabinets orcompartments which supplement the lockers shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3 tomake up the complete system.

Fig. 5 is a vertical' section on line 5-5 'in Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary perspective view of a portion of theconstruction shown in prises a structure A of steel or other suitablematerial, having openings a arranged one above the other, in verticalcolumns, for the lockers or removable drawers B, which latter may be ofany suitable construction.

iAs shown, these lockers or drawers are pro' vided at their front endswith locks o for engaging the lower edges of the openings ato hold thelockers or drawers against removal. At its yrear end, each locker ordrawer B is provided with an opening or hand-hole C through which anattendant can obtain access to remove clothing or articles of wearingapparel, or for any other purpose. Preferably, therefore, the structureA has a paageway D in rear thereof, which is provided with a door d forgaining access thereto. The attendant, by entering this passageway D,can gain access to any of the drawers or lockers through the openings C,in the manner explained. The door al can be provided with a suitablelock E to prevent improper access to the passageway back of the drawers.are made just large Aenough to contain the gymnasium suit, or the golfsuit, or other similar wearing apparel, but are not large enough tocontain the ordinary street shoes and clothing, etc., whereby the entirestruc-- ture is very much condensed and will not occupy as much space aswould be the case if these drawers were to be used to contain the streetclothing while the user is on the floor of the gymnasium or on the golfcourse.'

Figs. 4 to 8 show the construction of the dressing cabinet or auxiliarycompartment to be used in common by those who occup the drawers orlockers previously describe Offcourse, with a large number of drawers orlockers, Athere will then be a suitable num- These drawers or lockers B-ber of the cabinets shown in Figs. 4 to 8, but there need not be alarged number of these cabinets than the number of people who can occupythe gymnasium door at the saine time, or who can use the golf course atthe same time. ln other words, in a gymnasium or club having a thousandmembers, there would be a thousand drawers orlockers B, of the kindshown and described, but the number of dressing cabinets F, such asshown in Figs. l to 8, inclusive, would be very much less, and wouldonly be a percentage of the said total number of drawers or lockers,depending upon how many people could occupy the floor of the gymnasiumat the saine time, or could properly be on the golf course at the sametime. ln tact, the number oi' dressing cabinets F might be even less, asin some instances it would be found that the maximum number of peopleoccupying the gymnasium door, or using the golf course, would never beas large as the tull capacity thereof. 'lhese cabinets F are preferablyconstructed of steel and sheet-metal, or other suitable material, andare rectangular and uprightl in torni, being provided with legs tosupport them a distance above the floor. Flach cabinet is, therefore,provided with a top wall l` a rear or back wall 2, side walls 3, and afront doei' 4, which latter is hinged at 5 to one corner portion olf thecabinet. lt will be observed that this door is of a height to extendfrom the top oit' the cabinet to a point some nistance above the bottom6 of the structure, thus leaving an opening between said bottom and thelower edge ot' said door. As shown, said door is provided with upper andlower locking bolt-s 7 and S, operated by a suitable locking mechanism0, said upper bolt engaging a cleat l@ on the cabinet to hold the top ofthe door closed. rlhe bolt 8 has its lower end provided with anoutturned portion ll which projects under the lower edge or' the door.'lhc interior of the compartment may be provided with hooks or hangersfor supporting the street clothing of the user, and is preferably justlarge enough for this purpose.

The method of use is as follows: lllien the gymnasium or golf-clubmember, or other person, desires to use the lecker snstem, the drawer Fiis withdrawn from shelving or rack il, and carrie( place where the userwill then subst i, gymnasium or gell clothes contained in Y drawer forthe street clothing and wear' apparel. The said street clothing. r thenhung up or placed in the a and the drawer l is then inserted n r dooril, in the manner shown in Fi and 7, after the said door is closed. hen

tile drawer is inserted in place, e t 1 'l 2 i tne iront end of thedrawer eng` tue top of the lower end-portion 11 of the bolt 8, thuspreventing the bolts 7 and 8 from being returned to unlocking positionwhile the drawer is in place. rlhe lock of the drawer is then operatedto cause its bolt to engage the forward edge-portion of the bottom 6,thus locking the drawer in place and at the same time preventing thedoor 4 from being opened. To prevent the rear end ot the drawer frombeing tilted upward, should some one improperly attempt to force anentrance by forcing the door el outward, a cleat 13 is provided at theback of the cabinet, inside thereof, to extend over the rear end of thedrawer, as shown in Fig. 5. The cabinet F thus closed and locked againstfurther` entrance thereto by the insertion and locking in place of thedrawer B, is new inaccessible by other persons, and cannot be openeduntil the user returns. rlhe drawer B is then unlocked and removed, thestreet clothing, etc., is removed from the cabinet, and the golf orgymnasium suit, or other wearing apparel, is then returned to thedrawer-B, after which the latter is then returned to the rack' orlockerstructure A, where it is againv locked in place. rl`his releasesthe cabinet F for use by other persons, and in this way the said cabinetis not individual for any particular user ot' the locker system, but tothe contrary is commento all of the members of the `gyinnasium or club.Thus, a considerable saving is accomplished, as the entire lof-kersystem is much less expensive and occupies less space than would'be thecase it' `the drawers or lockers B were made large enough te contain thestreet clothing and other wearing Aapparel while the gymnasium or othersimilar suit is in use.

ly the construction and combinations shownvand described, aself-service'locker system is provided, and by this is meant that theuser of the system can come and go and make the desired changes inclothing without the assistance of the care-taker or attendant. it thesaine time, however, the care-taker or other attendant can have accessto the rear end of each drawer or locl'er, so that soiled linen Or otherthings may be removed from the drawers-or lool:- ers, and so that theclean laundry can then be distributed among the diicferent drawers orlocker without unlocking and removing them from their respective orallotted coinpartnienl's. For this purpose, steel or other kind ornmetal shelving jfl.. can be placed a distance from the wall ol' the,building. and the passageway thus provided for the structure can then bein )ped with a door oi ny character` such as the door ol prt-,vir icribed, or with any other suitable. n s preventing access to thepassagwaf. course, the openings in the ends of the drawers or lockersneed not necessarily be large enough to permit the hand to be insertedinto the drawer or locker, but to the contrary can be just large enou hto permit the care-taker to slide the pac age of laundry through theopeningand into the door. This, however, will depend upon therequirements or practice in dilferent cases. and if desired the saidopenings may be large enough to permit the caretakerl to insert the handinto the drawer. However this may be, the drawers are preferably of suchshape and construction that they can be inserted in the lower end of theinterior of the dressing cabinet, in the manner explained, in order tokeep the cabinet closed and locked until the user returns. During thistime, of course, the drawer will indicate who is using the cabinet,assuming that the different drawers are numbered or lettered or markedin some other suitable manner.

lVhen one drawer or locker is transferred to the cabinet F, the rearopening C of such drawer or locker is closed by the rear wall Q of thecabinet, so that access cannot be had to the drawer or locker when thelatter is locked in the cabinet.

l donnot limit myself to the eXact construction shown and described.

What I claim as my invention is 1. ln a locker system, a structuredivided into compartments,individual storage drawers 'or lockers forinsertion in said compartments, devices to lock the drawers or lockersin place, a dressing cabinet common to the users of said individualdrawers or lockers, said cabinet having a space in which any one of saiddrawers or lockers may be temporarily inserted, so that said users cantake turns in occupying said cabinet, and said cabinet having meanswhereby the locking device of the drawer or locker inserted therein isoperative to lock the cabinet in closed condition.

Q. In a locker system, a structure divided into compartments, individualdrawers or lockers for insertion in said compartments, devices to lockthe drawers or lockers in place, a dressing cabinet common to the usersof said individual drawers or lockers, said cabinet having a space inwhich any one of said drawers or lockers may be inserted, and saidcabinet having means whereby the locking device of the drawer or lockerinserted therein is operative to lock the cabinet in closed condition,said means comprising a door hinged to the cabinet and disposed abovethe drawer or locker. and locking devices on said door to engage theupper portion of the cabinet and the front portion of the drawer orlocker.

3. ln a locker system, a structure divided into compartments, individualdrawers or lockers for insertion in said compartments, devices to lockthe drawers or lockers in place, a dressing cabinet common to the usersof said individual drawers or lockers, said cabinet having a space inwhich any one of said drawers or lockers may be inserted, said cabinethaving means whereby the locking device of the drawer or locker insertedtherein is operative to lock the cabinet in closed condition, saidcabinet having a bottom wall to support said drawer therein, and saidmeans including a door movably mounted on the cabinet and disposed abovethe front portion of the drawer or locker when the latter is inserted inthe bottom portion of the cabinet.

4. In a locker system,a structure divided into compartments, individualdrawers or lockers for insertion in said compartments, devices to lockthe drawers or lockers in place, said drawers or lockers having theirrear ends provided with openings through which the hand can be inserted,and said structure having a passageway in rear thereof to afford accessto said openings, means to prevent access to said passageway, and acabinet to receive said drawers or lockers and having means to closesaid openings to prevent access to the drawers or lockers whentransferred to said cabinet.

5. ln a locker system, a structure providing a plurality of compartmentsarranged in vertical columns, drawers or lockers for said compartments,and devices to lock the front ends of said drawers or lockers in place,each drawer or locker having its rear end provided with an openingaffording access to permit the removal of articles from the drawers orlockers or to permit articles to be placed in the drawers or lockerswithout unlocking and removing them from the compartments, by theattendant only, said structure having a. passageway in rear of saiddrawers or lockers, and a door to prevent access to said passageway, anda cabinet adapted to receive said drawers or lockers one at a. time, sothat said cabinet is common to the users of all of said drawers orlockers, and means on said cabinet to close the opening at the rear endof each drawer or locker.

6. The combination of a plurality of storage drawers or lockers, astructure to hold said drawers or lockers in storage position, and acabinet to temporarily receive only one drawer or locker at a time, sothat .the persons to whom said drawers or lockers are allotted arecompelled to take turns in usingsaid cabinet, and means to lock anyoccupying drawer in place and the cabinet closed after the transfer ofthe drawer from said structure to said cabinet.

7. rfhe combination of a plurality of drawers each having a rearopening, a main structure to hold said drawers and having through itsopening when temporarily re- Ineans to aord access to said opening oftained in said auxiliary structure.

each drawer, by an attendant, and an aux- Signed by me at Chicago,llinos, this lary structure to receive Said drawers one 15th day ofJune, 1916.

5 at a time-and having means to close said opening, so that a drawer isnot accessible GRAHAM H. PGGOT.

